How to price a bathroom renovation
This is written by a renovation contractor who prices these every week, not by a software company that read a blog post. Every number below is a 2026 Ontario market range — what a reputable mid-size renovation company actually charges a homeowner, before HST.
It is not a price list to copy. Your costs, your crew and your market are yours. It is the structure of a bathroom quote, so you can build your own and stop guessing.
Start with your shop rate, not a wage
The most common way a small crew goes broke while staying busy is pricing labour off what they pay a carpenter instead of what an hour on site actually costs the business.
Most established renovation companies in southern Ontario work from a blended rate of roughly $150–$180 an hour in 2026. That number carries wages, WSIB, liability insurance, the truck, fuel, tools, the phone, the software, the accountant — and the unbilled hours you spend quoting work you do not win.
The line items in a bathroom quote
A bathroom is roughly nine stages. Quote every one of them, even the ones you are tempted to absorb — especially those, because they are the ones that quietly eat the margin.
1. Protection, demolition and disposal
Floor and stair protection, dust containment, stripping to studs, and getting it off site. Taking a standard bathroom back to studs runs $1,500–$2,400 including disposal. A bin or dump run on its own is $500–$750.
2. Plumbing rough-in
Priced per fixture point moved, not per bathroom. Relocating a drain or supply runs $550–$850 per point. Leaving everything where it sits is the cheapest decision a client can make, and worth telling them plainly.
3. Electrical
Pot lights at $180–$280 each installed, GFCI outlets, an exhaust fan, and a dedicated circuit if there is heated floor. Heated floor wiring is priced per square foot and the thermostat is its own line.
4. Framing and blocking
Niches, benches, grab-bar blocking, furring a wall to hide a stack. Small hours individually; skipping them on the quote is how a job runs three days long.
5. Waterproofing
Membrane, band, corners, pipe collars and a flood test. Kerdi or equivalent runs $14–$20 per square foot. The flood test is worth its own line so the client understands they are paying for the thing that stops a ceiling coming down in two years.
6. Tile
Supply and install, $18–$30 per square foot for standard wall and floor work. Large-format, herringbone, mosaic and anything needing a pattern match sit at the top or above it — the material barely changes, the labour per square foot climbs steeply. Price the shower floor separately from the walls; small mosaic is slow.
7. Fixtures and glass
Vanity, toilet and faucet installed together run $900–$1,500 in labour. Shower glass splits sharply: a pre-built door is a fraction of custom, and custom glass is usually the single biggest line a client did not see coming. Quote both and let them choose.
8. Drywall, paint and trim
Board, tape, mud, sand, prime, paint, baseboard and door casing. A standard room painted properly is $550–$900. Mud and sand are priced per square foot and are almost always underquoted.
9. The things that are not on anyone's list
- Permit coordination and inspection time
- Site cleanup at the end of every day, not just the end
- The half-day of pickups and returns nobody logs
- Caulking, silicone and final detailing
- Your time on site managing subs
A worked example: a standard 5×8 bathroom
Full gut, tub-to-shower conversion, plumbing staying where it is, mid-range tile, pre-built glass. Ontario, 2026, before HST.
| Stage | Range |
|---|---|
| Protection, strip to studs, disposal | $1,500–$2,400 |
| Plumbing rough-in (3 points) | $1,650–$2,550 |
| Electrical — pot lights, GFCI, fan | $1,200–$1,900 |
| Framing, niche and blocking | $600–$1,100 |
| Waterproofing and flood test | $1,600–$2,300 |
| Wall tile, ~96 sqft | $1,900–$2,900 |
| Floor tile with uncoupling, ~40 sqft | $1,000–$1,500 |
| Vanity, toilet, faucet, accessories | $900–$1,500 |
| Shower glass (pre-built) | $600–$1,200 |
| Drywall, mud, paint, trim | $1,800–$2,800 |
| Materials and fixtures allowance | $4,000–$7,000 |
| Typical all-in, before HST | $18,000–$28,000 |
Below about $15,000 you are describing a fixture swap, not a renovation. Above $35,000 you are into custom glass, heated floors, moved walls or high-end stone — all legitimate, all worth saying out loud before the client hears the number.
Four places crews lose money on bathrooms
Extras that never reached an invoice
The most expensive habit in the trade. A client asks for one more pot light, you say yes because it is twenty minutes, and it never gets billed. Ten of those is a week of unpaid work. Write every extra as a change order, priced, before you do it.
Quoting from memory
If two people in your company quote the same bathroom and land $4,000 apart, you do not have a price book — you have two opinions. Fix the rates once and every quote after that is consistent whoever writes it.
Absorbing the takeoff
Four hours of evening quoting per job, on a 30% win rate, is thirteen unpaid hours for every job you land. It does not appear on any invoice, but it is one of your largest real costs.
Finding out in March
If you learn a job lost money when your accountant tells you, it is a year too late. Costs need to land against the job while it is open — hours as they are clocked, materials as receipts come in — so a phase running hot is something you can still act on.
Doing this in minutes instead of evenings
Everything above is the method. The reason most contractors do not follow it is time: a proper line-by-line takeoff takes hours, and those hours only exist after supper.
That is the problem Contrax was built to solve. Walk the bathroom with your phone, talking as you go. The app watches the video, writes the scope stage by stage, and prices every line off your own rate card — the one you set once, so a quote comes out the same whoever runs it. You read it, adjust it, and send it before you have left the driveway.
It is a draft, not an oracle. You check every line before it reaches a client — that part does not change, and it should not.
Record a bathroom, drop the clip in, and watch it write the estimate. No signup needed.
See the live demo →Contrax is $150 CAD a month for your whole company — estimating, scheduling, job costing, invoicing and HST-ready books. Built in Oshawa, Ontario.
Common questions
Should I give a client a price on the spot?
Give a range on the spot, the itemised quote in writing. A number said out loud in a bathroom becomes the number they remember, and you will argue against it for the rest of the job.
Do I show the client my line items?
Yes. An itemised quote is easier to defend, easier to adjust when they want to trim, and it is what makes a change order feel normal rather than like a surprise bill. Show the lines; you do not have to show your margin.
What about HST?
Quote before tax and show HST as its own line. If you are collecting it, it is not your money — it is being held for the CRA, and treating it as revenue is how contractors end up short at filing.